Marlette delivered this insight as part of his advice to 'have high standards but don't condemn yourself when you fall short — high expectation without condemnation.' The paradox he identified was that perfectionism, far from driving excellence, actually prevents action. The person who must succeed perfectly will avoid any situation where failure is possible — which means avoiding everything worth doing. As an editorial cartoonist, Marlette knew this intimately. Every cartoon published was an imperfect expression of a perfect idea. The only way to produce great work was to accept that most of it would fall short. The alternative — waiting until you could guarantee a masterpiece — meant never drawing at all. He connected this to the story at the heart of his speech: a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who confessed at a dinner that he hadn't even finished high school. The physicist's success came not from perfecting each step but from pursuing his curiosity despite enormous imperfections in his preparation. 'Success in life isn't always predictable,' Marlette observed, and the pursuit of perfection is one of the surest ways to prevent it.